ARTICLES ABOUT INHALATION BY DATE - PAGE 5

ALLENTOWN An early morning fire damaged a family's south side home Tuesday, a city fire official said. A female was treated for smoke inhalation in the blaze at 2461 S. Third St., said Battalion Chief Richard Shott, who said another person was injured at the scene, but he had no information on that patient Tuesday night. Emergency crews were called to the single-family, two-story home about 12:25 a.m., Shott said, and everyone was outside the home when firefighters arrived. Fire personnel were on scene for three hours and 19 minutes putting out the blaze, checking for hot spots and investigating the cause, which is unknown.

A firefighter fell from a one-story roof while battling a blaze that damaged a row home Tuesday morning in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. Firefighter John Demyan wasn't badly hurt in the 9-foot fall, said Skip Fairchild, director of public safety at the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority. Demyan is a firefighter with the company based at Lehigh Valley International Airport. The fire started in a second-floor front bedroom at 2758 Suzanne Way, the home of Maximo Amparo, said Han-Le-Co Fire Chief Robin Yoder.

TOBYHANNA TOWNSHIP A 54-year-old Pocono Pines man died of smoke inhalation in a fire in his home, which was discovered burning by police early Friday. Ernest Lewis of Pine Road in Pocono Pines was found dead in the house after firefighters from Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock townships extinguished the fire, according to a Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department news release. Police officers discovered the fire at 12:08 a.m. Friday while investigating a call about heavy smoke in the area of Route 940 and Old Route 940. Monroe County Coroner Dave Thomas said an autopsy showed Lewis died of carbon monoxide toxicity.

WILLIAMS TOWNSHIP A tractor-trailer fire in Williams Township shut down westbound Interstate 78 for nearly four hours during rush hour Monday night as emergency crews tried to extinguish the blaze and clear the wreckage. State police at Belfast said the vehicle, driven by Patricia Waldrep of Fairfield Glade, Tenn., was headed west on the interstate near the Route 33 interchange when the truck's tractor light came on shortly after 5 p.m. Waldrep pulled over, at which point smoke started to come from the engine, police said.

A fire destroyed a cottage early Sunday at the Pool Wildlife Sanctuary in Lower Macungie Township and injured several people who tried to extinguish it. When firefighters arrived, they found the two-bedroom cottage engulfed in flames. It took two hours to declare the fire under control. Eric Lloyd, 24, and Elizabeth Bevilacqua, 23, who were guests in the cottage, were admitted overnight to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for smoke inhalation. Brandon Ruhe, who lived in a neighboring cottage, was treated at the hospital for a finger injury.

ALLENTOWN An Allentown parks employee became ill Friday after inhaling a dry chemical from a trash can he was emptying at Trexler Park, city officials said. Lamer Curto was taken to St. Luke's Hospital-Allentown, and was treated and released, said Parks Department Director John Fasolka. A fire extinguisher had been discharged into the trash can, and the powder fell onto the sanitation worker about 10:30 a.m. at 195 Springhouse Road, said Battalion Chief Robert Fatzinger. The substance burned Curto's eyes, and he felt nauseous from inhaling it. The extinguisher had been discarded on the grass and was removed earlier by another parks employee, Fatzinger said.

When classes resume Sept. 6, asthmatic students in Allentown schools are likely to be allowed to carry inhalers and self-administer medication during school hours. In the past, students were prohibited from carrying inhalers in school, and medication had to be given under the supervision of a school nurse. The Allentown School Board gave preliminary approval to the new policy last week in a unanimous vote of the eight directors present at a policy committee meeting. Adoption is expected at the board's monthly meeting Thursday in the district administration building.

Within minutes, a blaze that started on the second floor raced through and destroyed a Milford Township home. "My neighbor Nathan ran over and asked me to call 911," said Mary Kleinsmith, who lives next door. "By the time I called and went back outside there were flames shooting out of the back." The fire at 2060 Scheetzs Church Road, the home of Jonathan, 51, and Sue Bordner, 53, and their sons, Nathan, 26, and Craig, 24, started at about 4 p.m., according to Milford Township Fire Department Chief Jim Ruth.

An electrical fire in an elevator motor at Praxis Alzheimer's Facility in Easton sent staff scrambling to evacuate more than 100 patients and city firefighters rushing to free a woman trapped in the elevator Wednesday morning. The patients, many of whom cannot walk, and the staff worker in the elevator were not injured, authorities said. But an Easton police officer, Larry Palmer, was taken to Easton Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation before being released, said Fire Chief Frank Chisesi.

A faulty space heater sparked an early-morning fire in a Quakertown apartment Wednesday, sending one man to the hospital with injuries from smoke inhalation. John Brown, 46, said his wife often yells at him to unplug the space heater in their living room before he goes to bed. For some reason, Brown said he only turned the unit off, and now regrets not taking his wife's advice. "I turned off the space heater about 2:30 a.m. and went to bed," Brown said Wednesday afternoon inside the first-floor apartment he rents in a converted row home at 105 S. Main St. "I started falling asleep and heard crackle, crackle, crackle.